By Justin Feil, Contributor
Matt Sanders is hopeful the Hillsborough High School boys swim team still has enough firepower to be contenders even after the Raiders graduated another important group of seniors from last year’s sectional championship squad., “I’m actually really happy with the beginning of the season,” Matt, a senior sprinter, said. “Especially because we’ve continued to improve as the season has gone on. That’s really exciting going into the state tournament in about a month. I think we have a lot to look forward to.”, Last season, the Raiders won their first sectional title in eight years in a convincing win of the Central Jersey Public A crown over Lenape. But Sam Hendrix, who won a pair of events that day, and Kevin Gibson, who won an event that day, headlined the swimmers who graduated from that group, and the Raiders also lost some depth. They have been working to replace that depth through the first six weeks of this season., “Last year we won our sectional championships,” Matt said. “This year we’re going to try to go as far as we can in our state tournament. We’re going to work really hard to continue to improve throughout the entire season and swim as fast as we can. We have some pretty good relays too that we’re looking forward to at our counties and conferences. I think that’ll be fun.”, On Tuesday, the Raiders picked up their second win of the season in six meets, 114-56, over Watchung Hills. It was their first meet back after a holiday break., “We won the meet and we scored a lot of points and showed that we actually have pretty good depth this year with a lot of people scoring points in the outside lanes and the middle lanes” Matt, who won the 100 butterfly, said. “We did graduate a lot of very talented swimmers last year, so this year different swimmers are stepping up than in previous years. We’re scoring more points in areas where we haven’t in the past.”, The meet began with Derek Kosydar, Matt Ciattarelli, Karl Conrad and Alex Gonzalez winning the 200 medley relay. Derek won the 200 IM and 100 backstroke, Alex captured the 50 freestyle and Brandon Honwad won the 500 free., The back end of the meet was highlighted by sweeps of the 200 free and 400 free relays. Alex, Karl, Evan Morgan and Matt won the 200 free relay and Derek, Evan, Pranav Sharma and Matt won the 400 free relay., “We still do have some pretty good relays,” Matt said. “I think we are going to be able to put together a pretty good 200 free relay because we have some good sprinters for that. I think that’ll be a good event that we definitely look forward to doing well in this year.”, Hillsborough still has some important cogs from last year. Matt is a consistent performer in the sprint events, Joshua Franco was a double-event winner in last year’s sectional title win and Karl won the 500 free last year against Lenape., “Joshua Franco, Karl Conrad, Alex Gonzalez and Derek Kosydar have been playing a really big role in our success so far this year,” Matt said. “They’ve all improved a lot this year, which has been helpful in terms of points and putting together a good all-around lineup.”, Karl, Alex and Matt are all seniors and Joshua is a junior. Into that mix, the Raiders are introducing some names and some less familiar names., “This year we have a lot of high school swimmers – guys that don’t swim year-round, only on the high school team,” Matt said. “So as the year goes on, we’ve been able to progress. As they’ve had more time to practice, I’ve seen a lot of improvement. The freshman class we got this year – Brandon Honwad, James McChesney and Pranav Sharma – they’ve been able to contribute, especially in the distance events like the 500 free.”, Despite swimming the fly on Tuesday, Matt remains a staple in the sprints. He’s been helping solidify Hillsborough’s sprints since his freshman year., “I’m still doing the sprint events, like the 50 free and 100 free and the relays,” he said. “They’re pretty fun events and I especially enjoy doing the relays with my teammates.”, Matt has seen progress with his year-round club, Somerset Valley YMCA, and that should help him push to new bests in the high school season. It’s his final season of high school swimming before he moves on to Amherst College, where he will swim for their men’s team next year., “I’ve been working a lot on my sprint events so I’ve seen some improvement there,” he said. “Also in some of my mid-distance events, like the 200, I’ve seen improvement which is good. It’s actually been pretty steady progress.”, Matt is looking for the same sort of progress out of the Hillsborough team. With so many high school only swimmers, they can expect to improve with more consistent practice time. The Raiders were in the pool plenty over the holiday break and now take aim at their usual improvements down the stretch., “Even though we lost a lot of depth last year, we’re continuing to still become a faster team,” he said. “We’re just improving in different areas. A lot of our high school swimmers have been getting a lot better as the season goes on. I think we’re continuing to hold ourselves to the same standard that we have in the past. We’re doing a good job of that. We still have a strong team that’s continuing to get stronger as the season goes on.”, Hillsborough is looking to extend its reputation for finishing seasons strong. They have put together some of their best swims in state meets traditionally., “I think that does help us because it’s a way for us to get excited and have something to look forward to at the end of the season,” Matt said., There is still plenty left before states. Hillsborough takes on Hunterdon Central next Tuesday as they continue to gear up for the feature meets., “I think that will be a close meet because they’re a very talented team,” Matt said. “It’ll be a very good matchup and a close scoring meet.”, He is doing all he can as a senior leader to help the Raiders progress. After three years of looking up to seniors, he is finally one of them., “It’s actually really enjoyable,” Matt said. “I enjoy being a leader and trying to work with everyone to try to make a good team atmosphere and make sure everyone is doing well and having a good time. I think that’s something our team does really well – we’re all very supportive of each other and we have fun and do well at the same time.”, He has been using his years of swimming to bring along the less experienced members of the HHS team. It’s one way he has tried to see the Raiders develop., “I like to try to help people improve their strokes,” Sanders said. “That’s one thing that I’ve had a lot of experience with, so I like to show them how they can get faster and eventually be able to improve their swims so the team will benefit.”, Matt said he was thrilled to end last season with a championship. He would love for the Raiders to develop far enough to try to repeat and cap what’s been a career filled with highlights., “We’re definitely looking forward to the end of the season,” Sanders said. “I think we know we still have a lot of room to improve. We have in the past definitely gotten very fast in the meets that we rest for. I think we’re going to continue to do that this season.”
